Dungeons Are Bad Business

The next morning, Vee woke up with an idea that he thought rather clever: instead of hoofing it around town and asking people if they were interested in coming to the Westown Strip, he'd simply set up a little table in the market and let people come to him. There were risks associated with such a decision – mostly being people with no means or skills to actually run a business of any kind wasting his time – but the [Dungeon Master] decided that he preferred that to another day of rejection after rejection.

With that goal in mind, he made a list of the spaces that were open and the rents that would be charged for each of them and headed to the market with Alforde and Reginald behind him. Alforde was carrying one of the chairs from their room over his helmet on account of the fact that while Vee was fine making himself a table out of ectoplasm the [Ghost Smith] didn't particularly care to sit on an ectoplasm chair for any amount of time longer than a few minutes.

It was a warm, misty morning, and the market was fairly empty when the trio arrived. After confirming with one of the [City Guards] stationed nearby that they wouldn't get into any trouble if they set up and sat there for a while – so long as they didn't try and sell anything, which would require them to have previously paid for a vendor's license – Vee picked an otherwise empty corner and activated [Shape Ectoplasm].

He grabbed some blue ectoplasm and started working it, pinching and pulling until he had a long rectangle that was about as thick as his fingertip. That was good enough for tabletop. To it, he added some cylinders for legs and tweaked them until the table was reasonably stable. It rocked ever so slightly, but Vee didn't really mind. It wasn't like he was going to be judged by how stable the table was or anything.

He also made another couple chairs out of ectoplasm for the interested parties to sit on while they talked. He wouldn't have wanted to stay in them for long, but they'd be comfortable enough for a short conversation.

Other than a few suspicious glances from people passing by, Vee had no interaction with the other shoppers in the market for the first hour that they were there, and so he agreed readily when Reginald suggested that they should put up a sign or something to let people know what was actually going on.

Vee scrounged up a bit of paper and a pen and started writing. Commercial opportunities available in Westown.

He thought for a moment, then added, No risk of fiend or spirit attacks. Guaranteed.

Hopefully that would alleviate some of the irrational fear people had when it came to anything Westown, and the [Dungeon Master] settled back into his seat to wait for people to come up and talk to him.

Sure enough, the sign proved its worth within the first five minutes, when a lanky green salamander came up and sat down.

"What sort of opportunities are you talking about?" he said. "Because it just so happens that I've been looking for a good opportunity."

Vee went to answer, but before he could so much as even get the word out the salamander went on, "See, blue, I'm a [Hustler] and I'm always on the hunt for a good opportunity. I've just been focusing on myself – not letting anyone or anything distract me – and I think this could be a really good thing for the both of us."

Vee blinked, somewhat unsure of how to respond to such an opening, but he kept his composure and asked, "That's great to hear. We're looking for tenants. What exactly is it that you do?"

"What do I do? Wrong question. Better to ask what is it that I don't do? Dig?"

Vee looked at Reginald and raised his eyebrow by just a hair. The hat wiggled his brim, completely lost, and Vee wondered if he might have hit that age where suddenly words seemed to have meanings that he'd never learned.

"I…see," Vee lied. "That's…a unique way of phrasing it."

The salamander leanded forward, and there was a peculiar intensity in his eyes that Vee found somewhat unsettling. "Look, blue, I'll tell you what it is I don't do. I don't get distracted, I don't let anyone keep me from my fleurs, and I don't panic when the going gets tough."

"Those are all…admirable things," Vee said slowly. "But I'm mostly interested in what sort of commercial venture you might be interested in bringing to Westown. We're open to a wide variety of things, but want to have some sort of tangible idea of what you might be looking to do."

That prompted another bizarre string of sentences, and Vee's suspicion that the salamander was mostly just full of hot air was all but confirmed.

He smiled politely, thanked the salamander for coming by, and said that they'd reach out if they were ever in need of a "hard-charging self-starter who was running before he was even walking."

Keeping the relief from his face as he watched the salamander walk away, Vee got his pen back out and amended his sign once again. Clear, serious inquiries only.

He also added "Great for [Chefs] and [Cooks]!" He really wanted a restaurant or two along the strip, so he might as well add that little bit of extra encouragement for anyone who might have an interest in that type of thing.

It was another fifteen or twenty minutes before an older man with thinning hair came and sat down across from Vee. He had a young woman next to him, and she looked a little nervous. They'd been buying something from one of the other market vendors, but had stayed put for a few minutes after completing their purchase and talking to each other while looking furtively at Vee's sign.

"Good morning," the man said cheerfully. "My name is William Deskin, and this is my Granddaughter Alanna. We're interested in your sign."

Somewhat cautious after his conversation with the salamander – who hadn't introduced himself, Vee thought with a small measure of amusement – the [Dungeon Master] nodded and gave the man his name.

"What sort of venture are you interested in bringing to Westown?"

"Well, for the last few years, my granddaughter and I have been exploring the vast and exciting world of soup as a way to spend time together," William said. "There's a marvelous diversity of flavors and textures you know, and if you'll excuse this old man for saying so we're quite good at it."

Vee perked up ever so slightly. This sounded like an idea with some legs to it, even if he wasn't, generally speaking, all that enthusiastic about soup. "So you'd be running some kind of…soup house?"

William nodded.

"Are either of you [Cooks] or [Chefs]?"

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Alanna shook her head. "I'm a [Cooking Hobbyist], but neither of us have ever had any formal training. Is that going to be a problem?"

"I don't think so," Vee said, wondering if that was actually true. While he wasn't exactly the type to believe that a person's classes – or lack thereof, as was the case here – were really all that important, there was no denying that having relevant classes made a lot of the drudgery of any given activity a lot easier to do. People cooked for themselves all the time without a class and were capable of making food that they enjoyed, but would that be enough for a restaurant to succeed?

Then again, what exactly was success in this situation? Vee didn't really care all that much about collecting large amounts of fleurs from rent, he mostly just wanted the places filled and so long as William and Alanna weren't flakes it wasn't all that much of a problem. If their soup house ended up not being very good, he could always kick them out and find a new tenant in the future.

"Any experience running a business before?"

William nodded. "I was a [Merchant] for twenty five years. Helped run Baxter's caravan south down to Reldenspire for about fifteen of those."

Vee had never heard of Reldenspire, but having [Merchant] experience was reassuring.

"Well, it's your lucky day," the [Dungeon Master] said with a smile. "We've been looking for a restaurant or two, and would be happy to provide you with a space on the strip."

William cleared his throat. "Make no mistake, I'm glad to hear that, but I hope you'll understand if I have some questions about the terms and such."

"Of course, I'd expect nothing less. Go ahead and ask."

William pressed Vee for details about the logistics, asking about the sizes they were looking at, what the environment for delivering supplies was like, and of course how much rent would be. Vee handed over his list, explaining that most of the spaces were going to cost three gold fleurs per month. The old man balked for a moment at that, but relaxed visibly when the [Dungeon Master] let him know about the revenue share agreement.

"You think we could swing that?" he asked. His granddaughter had thought for a few seconds and then nodded her head. Vee got the impression that while William took the lead on most things she was the stronger willed of the two.

"Well that's that then," William said, squaring his shoulders. "What are our next steps?"

"Well, next you should come to Westown at your convenience and pick a spot," Vee said. "And probably the sooner the better. We're not particularly formal about the process of allocating spaces right now since we're mostly focused on just getting them all filled, but you probably don't want to be the last one to pick."

William's eyes sparkled, and Vee wondered if he'd just made some sort of mistake. It was hard to tell with [Merchants].

"We'll be by tomorrow," he said, shaking Vee's hand. "And we'll even bring a bowl of our finest soups so that you can taste them for yourself."

Vee thanked him much more genuinely than he had the salamander, and mentally patted himself on the back for his idea to come and set up in the market. It was still early and he'd already filled one of the five spaces he had remaining.

Surely the other four would come along quickly too.

By that afternoon, Vee had filled two more of his remaining vacancies – or at least, he'd gotten interested parties to agree to come and check out the spaces and see if they were interested in setting up shop.

The first of these new tenants was a gnarled elkin named Red Star. Her name came from her hair, which was dark red for the most part with some streaks of gray here and there. She was a [Chandler] and [Soaper] who'd sold her wares privately for years, and apparently had recently been looking to expand to new markets. She seemed surprised when Vee only said that rent would be three gold fleurs per month, and the speed with which she agreed to pay it made the [Dungeon Master] think that she could have paid substantially more. Vee found that fascinating; who would have thought that candles and soaps were so lucrative?

The other would-be new tenant was a tall and muscular kitrekin. His name was Lando Splaywhisker, and while he was technically an adventurer he was looking for a different career path and had settled on training as a possibility. Apparently he had a real passion for helping people increase their Might.

Unfortunately, the guild had no need for another [Guild Trainer] – the salamander Theikal that had been doing it for years was still hearty and hale and had no desire to retire – which meant that he had few options.

He was interested in the biggest space available, which he planned to turn into a training facility of some sort. Much like Red Star, he didn't balk at the cost of the rent, which was going to be six gold fleurs per month on account of its size.

Feeling much better about his prospects of filling the remaining two spots in the next few days, Vee broke down his little table in the afternoon and directed Alforde to bring his chair back to the boarding house. Since the day had been so good, Vee had no problems with calling it quits a bit early.

Main Character Sheets:

Vee Vales:

Primary Class: Ghost Smith (Self), Level 10

Secondary Class: Dungeon Master (Oar's Crest), Level 25

Tertiary Class: Guy-Who-Takes-Things-WAY-Too-Far (Self), Level 8

Might: 18

Wit: 42

Faith: 25

Adventurousness: 7

Ambition: 16

Plotting: 22

Charisma: 18

Devious Mind: 30

Leadership: 21

Guts: 16

Intimidating Presence: 12

Citizenship: 25

Public Relations: 8

Determination: 7

Persuasiveness: 6

Bargaining: 7

Patience: 4

Competitive Spirit: 1

Pragmatism: 1

<3<3 Infatuation <3<3

Alforde Armorsoul:

Primary Class: Hammer Specialist (Self), Level 6

Secondary Class: Right-hand man (Vee Vales), Level 20

Tertiary Class: Dungeon Champion (Oar's Crest), Level 18

Additional Class: Glaciernaut (Sacha Silverblade), Level 14

Might: 62

Wit: 17

Faith: 27

Adventurousness (Bound – Vee Vales): 9

Endurance: 36

Intimidating Presence: 16

Heart of a Champion: 15

Citizenship (Bound – Vee Vales): 10

Vigilance: 11

Vanity: 2

Single-Mindedness: 1

Reginald:

Primary Class: Core Spirit (Unknown), Level ???

#$&Q#$)(@#$#@#$%!@#$##%#%()@#$**@@##

Secondary Class: Loudmouth (Self), Level 43

Tertiary Class: Majordomo (Vee Vales), Level 21

Additional Class: Announcer (Vee Vales), Level 14

Additional Class: Hyperthymesiac (Self), Level 5

Additional Class: Curmudgeon (Vee Vales), Level 1

Might: 3

Wit: 38

Faith: 17

Ambition: 29

Greed: 24

Deceptiveness: 28

Manipulativeness: 42

$#&*!@!!: !!!

Loyalty: 49

Patience: 11

Irritability: 27

Remorsefulness: 17

Expository Prowess: 23

Pragmatism: #@$%@$

Hop@#!! @#$@!@#

@#$@%%^

#4^5#*&_!+++#(@$#

Citizenship (Bound – Vee Vales): 10